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The Credit Union provides members with a variety of financial products and services to help them achieve their financial goals. Members can access services and bank on NWCCU's mobile app. For more information, visit our website at NWCCU.com or call them at 1-800-TUBELONG. This is a WXAV 773 Sounds Podcast introducing you to the best local bands in the Chicago Land area.
Hi, this is Pete from 773 Sounds here on the XWXAV88.3 FM Chicago, your escape from ordinary radio. I am incredibly excited for this week's featured Artist of the Week. On their band campaign, they're described as an indie rock band on the south side of Chicago playing sad songs with chime guitars and ambient trials. And they truly live up to that.
They're one of the most unique sounding bands I have come across while doing this show. If you're a fan of the Deftones, then you're going to absolutely love almost there, but not really. And I'm joined today by Jay and Armando. Gentlemen, how are you today?
Gold. Yeah, it's really, really cold out. I'm looking at my thermometer and saying six degrees right now. So it is, it is brutal, but Jay, how are you?
I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Surviving the cold. It has been a very fun weekend being out.
So I can believe it. I can believe it. So why don't we kind of just start back at the beginning? How did you guys first discover and encounter music?
You know, it's a deep question. We're going deep, Armando. We're going deep. I was probably a baby in the womb.
No, I'm just kidding. I mean, I know I came up around, you know, really got the music here, 13 or 14. I feel like the stuff you listen to as a teenager just really sticks with you. And when I was at age, I think YouTube really came around.
I was just searching out every band I could find on YouTube. And I think I ended up going from like my chemical romance smashing pumpkins and then like my bloody Valentine and then kind of went down the rabbit hole from there. How about you, Jay? So I've been exposed to music ever since I was little.
I come from a music family from my mom's side. So the music was always playing in the house. So that's how I got into it. And then in terms of my music taste, growing up, my dad listened to a lot of 90s grunge and alternative.
And then I got into a lot of mid 2000s to 2010s pop punk and alternative. So that was kind of my music taste. I loved Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, some 41, Blink 182. You name it.
Yeah. Oh man, you guys are speaking to my older millennial heart right now. So it seems like that 90s alternative rock and mid 2000s pop punk movement really had an impact then on the direction of the band. Is that kind of correct and sane?
I mean, maybe I know it's going to hurt Jay. I mean, I mean, I think the way it influences the way Jay makes music really resonates with me because I can tell it's like something they really feel and believe in. And I can get on board with that. So yeah, I'll say, yeah.
It's kind of how what we were talking about you and I, Peter, before the show of how a lot of my influence with pop punk or punk comes into my play style that mixes with the indie aspects and shoegaze sounds that we kind of aim for. So it's kind of a blend that makes it, I don't know. It feels like it seamlessly works together. Oh, it does.
And it has a really great sound kind of take me back. How did almost there but not really kind of come together? How did you guys form? Well, that's a story for Armando because I came later.
I mean, Jason specifically, we met when we were playing with other people. So people before Jay. And this was maybe like 22. No, it was 21.
And we were playing at Magoo's, which is like this all was it a warehouse? I don't know what it was. It was like a big bar, but it also like had a warehouse space like a big stage in the back of it. It was actually pretty cool.
We ended up playing a show together. I was in a different band and of course they were almost there but not really. So that's how we met. And we kind of just stayed in touch from there, say friends through social media and around the music scene.
And then two, three years ago now, some of the original members ended up leaving so they needed people to come into the band. And so we knew each other. So right away I messaged Armando and was just like, hey, I can play. If you need whatever, just let me know.
And I'd be happy to hop on. And that's how that came to be. Yeah, we hopped on. Now, how was that transition like then for you Armando when you lose those original bandmates, but then you have someone like Jay coming into the group into the fold?
You know, at the time, maybe I really stressed about it just because you spend a lot of time with your bandmates, you know, you're practicing minimum two, three hours a week and then you're like picking up heavy ass amps and dive bars. But I think once Jay joined, it just felt like natural or like we've known Jay for a while. So, you know, I'd say the transition was pretty easy once it actually happened. And then I mean, the best thing about Jay is they came already like good, you know, like some of the people we, you know, sometimes you play with other people and you kind of get better together, especially with like indie music, you know, like no one's going to Julie are there like Berkeley or something.
You're kind of just trying to make it work. But Jay already knew how to sing and play guitar, how to use pedals, you know, they had all their equipment. And so I was like, oh man, I should just like, you know, get experience to be able to play with off the bat all the time. So that's good.
Now, walk me through kind of like then how you guys approach like writing your music and everything. Do you typically start like melody first or a riff or do you do you usually come in with the lyrics and say, I have these lyrics and everything now that's built out from that? Yeah, I mean, it's funny because I told Jay, like, dude, I write riffs, song really write songs and Jason, like, bro, I write riffs, I'm really right song. But you know, Jay is like a talented songwriter and that's something I don't know how to do.
So I think usually, you know, it starts from like a cool riff or a cool part and then you just put Jay on top of it and it just sounds even better or if Jay had like a good hook, then you know, I can write a good riff for that. So, you know, nothing crazy. But I think that's how you combine like both of our talents to get the end product. It works really well because Armando will come in with an idea and, you know, listening to it a couple of times, it's just like, okay, how does this particular riff or sound or whatever?
How is it making me feel? What is it bringing out to me? You know, emotionally, mentally, like, basically what does it make me want to do? You know, does it make me want to crawl up in a ball or run five miles down the street of the cold of Chicago?
You know what I mean? So it really is just kind of, it's fun to work with, especially having a teammate like Armando and of course, the other members as well of just, you know, running with it. And that's basically what we've done is just coming up with ideas, coming together, picking out pieces that we like that we don't like or that we can improve and just going from there and it's been very collaborative, which I've been able to enjoy. Jay say like, what would that physically make me want to do?
I'm like, I don't think like that at all. So I think having that come in until like, whatever Armando is just amazing. Yeah, that's really interesting because when I asked this question to other musicians, you know, they always focus on feelings and everything and how the music moves them. But Jay's the first one to talk about what does it physically do to me?
You know, how does the music have that physical reaction? I think that's almost something that people forget about and they don't almost necessarily focus on. But we all do have that physical reaction. Like, I heard Bask the case by Green Day when I was 13 and my first reaction was, well, I got to play our guitar and then hopefully learn how to play guitar because this song is awesome, right?
So speaking of a good song, we've been featuring heavily your track called Empty, which is on your EP that came out last December, December 2024, actually called Sing Me to Sleep. And you kind of share a little bit about the approach for writing that song and how that came to be. Yeah, I guess it started out with, when it started with the music, and it's actually based on something that wrote when I was like 14 years old. And I think back then I didn't really have like a computer or a DOS.
I used Audacity on like a little netbook or something and then like just layered guitars. And that was my first experience kind of doing that. And I was like, man, it sounds amazing because it's kind of the song. It's kind of just a lot of, you know, a kind of droney and chords kind of clashing together and then it's just like a kind of like a drum machine type of beat that kind of just keeps it straight.
The reason for that is because I didn't have, with a quantize anything, I didn't have ways to like make it clean. I was also like 14. So I was just, you know, strumming along to a drum loop. And I, you know, I listen to that, man, that's fun.
I'm just going to try to rewrite that for the band. And that's what we did. And I think, you know, I'd never seen a revocals. And that's something that kind of let J take over and I think the end product kind of just elevated whatever the hell I was doing.
So. And at that time, I mean, we still had other members that came about. So we, a lot of the collaboration was just for that it was structurally what did we like? What did we feel was like too much in terms of like keeping it simple, but not in a way that's boring, I guess, because the song is pretty repetitive.
However, there's like new elements that get introduced throughout the song, which is what keeps it exciting. And so that was something that we talked about a lot during the writing process of how we wanted it to structurally be with the sound that we were going for. I'm here with Jay and Armando from almost there, but not really here on 773 sounds. Now, guys, if people want to give you a follow or check out your music and everything, where can they go and where can they find you?
They can find us on all social media platforms, all music platforms that almost there have been not really. We're on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all the music streaming. Like you said, we have our EPs and meet a sleep. So, you know, wherever there's internet access, you can find us.
Go up to like our practice space and give us $10. We'll just take a whole week for you. And to find that out, you can email them on Instagram. Now, if you want to find them on Bandcamp, they're at bnr.bandcamp.com.
Any new music on the horizon, are you guys working on an album, another EP? We've actually been talking about that a lot of kind of what we want to do next. We do have new music that we are working on. If you've been to a live show, if you want to come to a live show, then you'll find out that we do have new music.
We have one song that we've been playing live now that people I've been really resonating with. We're just very excited. But currently, we are in the creative process of writing new music for either an EP or an album. We're kind of feeling out how ambitious we want to be here.
Now, the other great thing too is you guys play the city on a very regular basis. In fact, coming up on February 4th, you're going to be at the Cobra Lounge. And then you've just recently played the Green Mill. So what was the performance that the Green Mill like?
It was a lot of fun. So we were a musical guest for a comedy show that they have there at the Green Mill. And it was really exciting for us because being from Chicago and in the music scene, the Green Mill holds a lot of significant history. And it was just really exciting.
Just from the moment of walking in, it was really overwhelming because you can feel that history and overwhelming in a good way. It just kind of overcomes you. And it was really exciting. So just being able to play in front of that crowd, that playing music that generally wouldn't be played in the Green Mill and having people resonate to it was awesome.
And just the way that they treated us was really special and it was very enjoyable and you know, experience that I won't forget. Now your show coming up at the Cobra Lounge, which is happening on February 4th, you're going to be playing with empty parking lots. For those who have never seen, almost there but not really live, how would you describe your stage presence? Like what can people expect if they're going to go and check you guys out live?
If you're going to go to a show, be prepared to participate because I love interacting with the crowd. And a lot of that does come from, again, just the music background that I'm into. Like you mentioned, Basket Case by Green Day, a lot of my influence comes from Billy Joe's stage presence. So I like moving around, I like talking to the audience, I like just getting them involved and I feel like that's something that kind of sets you apart from others is just putting on that.
Like yes, we can show up and play our music, song after song, but it's just like you're here for a show and how well can we present that show to you? You know that experience that it's just like you don't want it to be like you come to one of our shows, you've come to all of them, right? So that is very important to me in the sense of like I want you to have fun. I want you to enjoy yourself.
I want you to feel like you are a part of this experience. And that's just kind of what they can expect is, you know, hopefully good music you can enjoy and just a fun time. You know, I'll add, I mean, your experience is also going to vary depending on who you're looking at. If you want a good time, you want to get round up, just look at Jay.
Because if you look at me, I'm like, be trying to step on this tiny little button at my feet. And then like, if you make eye contact with me, I'm just like, gonna stop playing and walk off the stage. So, you know, I think if you want to calm down a little bit, look at me, maybe look at Amanda, Ben's always wearing our band shirt. That's our drummer.
So like, if you want to see a handsome guy with a nice, nice t-shirt, look at Ben and then go go back to Jay. So it sounds like there's a little bit of everything for everyone at almost there, but not really show. Yeah. I mean, between jumping around and like staring at your feet, you know, there's there's something for you somewhere in between.
Yeah, you guys got it all covered. That's phenomenal. So final question I have for you is, I mean, you guys are playing the city on a very regular basis. What's the local scene like right now here in the Chicago land area?
And for those people who, you know, they want to get into the local scene, but they're a little apprehensive. What encouragement would you give them to take that chance and see that band they haven't seen before? Honestly, literally it's just get out there. If you're trying to be a part of the scene, just do it.
There's shows all the time, every day. It does not matter. It doesn't matter the weather. We just mentioned we played Green Mill this past Saturday.
It was in negative degrees and it was, I'm pretty sure, it was a pretty packed house. We played at G-Man maybe two weeks ago and when there was a flash flood and we had a lot of people there. So, I mean, this scene is alive. And what's also great about it that I think sets it apart from other scenes that you hear about is the support of it.
Like everyone is very supportive of each other. And it doesn't matter where you come from or what you're playing, what your style of music. If you're in the scene, you're in it. You're a part of that community.
So don't be afraid to just get out there and ask questions. Ask where to buy. How do I get on one of your shows? How do what's advice to book a show?
Or the help is out there. So I think that's something that's very beautiful about this scene and everybody in the city is just how together we are. Yeah, and I'll add, if you've ever talked to your musician and just ask some about music, they won't shut up. Like, play music, really love music and that's why they're losing money going to go play at a random bar.
And it's definitely like they do it for the love of the game and you show up and show interest and what people are doing. They're going to return it. I mean, even just for this interview we're doing now, having someone ask us, what is your music? Why do you play?
That's amazing because we bust our ass and you don't always get returned for that. But seeing someone just enjoy what you're doing, I think, is amazing. So just do that. Go to show, enjoy it.
Look at Jay. Look at me. Look back at Jay and it's going to be a good time. So basically we're throwing all the attention on you, Jay.
So no pressure. You can handle it. It'll be okay. I'm a Leo.
It's okay. Jay and Armando from Almost There But Not Really. Again, if people want to give you guys a follow on social media, where can they find you? Almost There But Not Really.
Is there fan? I did on there? Or is it just Almost There But Not Really? Oh, yeah.
Almost There But Not Really. Thank you for having us. Thank you for listening to this WXAV 773 Sounds podcast. For more information on 773 Sounds, please visit our website, WXAV.com.
Thank you for having us.